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Explore the Themes

 

Śāntideva's Life and Works

Delve deeper into Śāntideva's life stories and historical context.

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Śāntideva's Life and Cultural World

Śāntideva's Works: An Overview

Influence and Reception of Śāntideva's Works

 

An Overview of Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra

A chapter by chapter exploration of Śāntideva's teachings as expounded in his main work, the Bodhicaryāvatāra.

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Generating Bodhicitta

Chapter One - The Excellence and Benefits of Bodhicitta

Chapter Two - Confession of Negativity

Chapter Three - Taking Hold of Bodhicitta

Protecting Bodhicitta

Chapter Four - Conscientiousness

Chapter Five - Vigilant Introspection

Chapter Six - Patience

Perfecting Bodhicitta

Chapter Seven - Diligence

Chapter Eight - Meditative Concentration

Chapter Nine - Wisdom

Dedication of Merit

Chapter Ten - Dedication

 

The Path of the Bodhisattva

Explore the path of the bodhisattva as laid out in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, Śāntideva's treatise about conduct, meditation, and the view.

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The Bodhisattva Path According to Śāntideva

Bodhicitta

The Six Perfections

The Two Truths

 

The Practices of the Bodhisattva

Explore the practices of the bodhisattva expounded by Śāntideva.

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Generating Bodhicitta

Preliminary Practices

The Bodhisattva Vow

Protecting Bodhicitta

Cultivating Discipline

Cultivating Patience

Perfecting Bodhicitta

Cultivating Diligence

Cultivating Concentration

Cultivating Wisdom

Dedication of Merit

Dedication of Merit

 

Patrul Rinpoche's Tradition

Discover and practice a living spiritual tradition rooted in Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra.

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A Short Account of Patrul Rinpoche's Life

Patrul Rinpoche's Way of Teaching the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Lineage Prayer

Practice Instructions

Patrul Rinpoche and the Dissemination of the Bodhicaryāvatāra

Rdza Dpal sprul's Teaching at the Śrī Siṃha Shedra in East Tibet

Two commentaries by Patrul Rinpoche's Disciples

 

An Overview of Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya

A chapter by chapter exploration of Śāntideva's Śikṣāsamuccaya.

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Giving: Chapter 1

Protecting: Chapter 2–7

Purifying: Chapter 8–15

Enhancing: Chapter 16–19

 

The Training of the Bodhisattva

Explore the training of the Bodhisattva path as laid out by Śāntideva in the Śikṣāsamuccaya.

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Śāntideva's Approach to the Bodhisattva Training

Training: Giving

Training: Protecting

Training: Purifying

Training: Increasing

 

Śāntideva's Vision in Today's World

Explore Śāntideva's vision and its relevance in today's world with regard to religion, philosophy, and science.

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Śāntideva's Importance in the Buddhist Interfaith Dialogues

Making Sense of Śāntideva's Vision of Reality (Philosophy)

Śāntideva's Vision in a Secular World

 

Translating Śāntideva's Works into Modern Languages: Issues and Challenges

Learn more about the many challenges translators face in their translation of Śāntideva's works.

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Translating Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra: Issues and Challenges (And How To Overcome Them)

 

Sacred Art and Architecture

Explore the rich tradition of Buddhist sacred art and architecture.

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Representations of the Bodhisattvas

Thangkas

Mahayana Buddhist Art History

The Outlines

Explore the outlines of Śāntideva's main works:

 

Outline: Bodhicaryāvatāra

One of the most famous Buddhist texts. Written by the ancient Indian Buddhist scholar and adept Śāntideva.

Outline

 

Outline: Śikṣāsamuccaya

Śāntideva's second and only other known text, "A Compendium of Training," is like a companion to the Bodhicaryāvatāra and deals extensively with the motivation and practice of the bodhisattva.

Outline

Lang, Karen. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 137–39. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Goodman, Charles. "Śāntideva." In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed March 15, 2021. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/

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Potter, Karl H., David J. Kalupahana, and Michael J. Sweet. "Śāntideva." In Buddhist Philosophy from 600 to 750 A.D., edited by Karl H. Potter, 516–25. Vol. 21 of Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017.

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Potter, Karl H. ed. "Śāntideva." In Bibliography: Part 1, Texts Whose Authors Can Be Dated; Authors Listed Chronologically, 5th through 9th Century. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Online edition. Last updated Apr 15, 2020. https://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xtxt2.htm.

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Lele, Amod. "Śāntideva." In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden. Accessed Feb. 11, 2021. https://iep.utm.edu/santideva/.

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Tsukamoto, Keisho, Yukei Matsunaga, and Hirofumi Isoda, eds. "Śāntideva." In A Descriptive Bibliography of the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature. Vol. 3, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddhist Epistemology and Logic, 250–69. Kyoto: Heirakuji-Shoten, 1990.

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Weeraratne, D. Amarasiri. "Bodhicaryāvatāra." The Maha-Bodhi 79, nos. 2–3 (1971): 406–9.

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Bodhicaryāvatāra [बोधिचर्यावतार]. byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa [བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འཇུག་པ།]. [The Way of the Bodhisattva]. Tengyur, RKTST 3216 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3216&typ=2.

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Bodhicitta - The altruistic thought to seek enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. It is said to have two aspects: compassion aimed at sentient beings and their problems and the wisdom of enlightenment as the solution. Skt बोधिचित्त  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས།  Ch 菩提心  

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Stender, Daniel. "Bodhicitta." In Buddhism and Jainism, edited by K. T. S. Sarao and Jeffery D. Long, 252–54. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2017.

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Ringu Tulku. "Bodhicitta." In Śāntidevas "Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung", transcribed and prepared by Gabriele Hollmann, 171–84. Vol. 3 of Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg (Weiterbildendes Studium), 1999. https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/buddhismus-in-geschichte-und-gegenwart/bd3-k10rinpoche.pdf.

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Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 4; Conscientiousness. Transcription of Teachings, 1998–99. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2002.

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Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 6; Patience. Transcription of Teachings, 2000–2002. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2010.

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Gelek, Ngawang. Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life: An Oral Explanation of Chapter 8; Concentration. Transcription of Teachings, 2004. Ann Arbor: Jewel Heart, 2008.

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Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'bodhisattva'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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Śāntideva (ཞི་བ་ལྷ་). Śikṣāsamuccaya [शिक्षासमुच्चय]. bslab pa kun las btus pa [བསླབ་པ་ཀུན་ལས་བཏུས་པ།]. [The Compendium of Training]. Tengyur, RKTST 3281 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=3281&typ=2.

Go to the page with the definition of 'Śikṣāsamuccaya'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

Go to the page with the definition of 'Bodhisattvas'

Bodhisattva - A person who seeks enlightenment for the sake of others. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is a compassionate being who is training on the path to Buddhahood and aspires to eliminate the suffering of all beings and take all sentient beings to the state of enlightenment. The Mahāyāna sūtras including those on buddha-nature generally have Bodhisattvas as the main audience or interlocutors for the Buddha's discourses. Skt बोधिसत्त्व  Tib བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ།  Ch 菩薩  

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